As the deal activity continues to gather steam in the attractive digital audio space in India, KukuFM, India’s leading subscription based digital audio platform, announced its USD 19.5 mn Series B fund raise led by South Korea’s Krafton yesterday. A&W Capital, a unique cross-border investment advisory firm focusing on the sports, gaming and digital media sectors, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to KukuFM on this marquee transaction.
KukuFM offers more than 150,000 hours of content across multiple genres including fiction, non-fiction, self-help in more than 5 regional languages. The proceeds from the current round would be utilised to broaden its language offerings and enable creation of quality audio content at scale.
Speaking on the transaction Lal Chand Bisu, Co-founder and CEO of Kuku FM said, “We are thrilled to have closed this latest round and to have onboarded prominent international investors such as Krafton. We have seen an unprecedented consumption of audio content amongst users in the country with 70% users coming from Tier 2 cities. We will continue to foster our creator and listener bases and are confident of reaching 10m active paid users by the end of 2022.”
Commenting on A&W Capital’s role Vinod Kumar Meena, Co-founder and COO said, “A&W were excellent partners for us through the process – their deep sector expertise coupled with strong investor connects were instrumental in delivering this successful outcome. We sincerely thank Paroksh and the team for their assistance and look forward to working with them again.”
Paroksh Gupta, MD, A&W Capital said, “This is another milestone in the ongoing evolution of the non-music digital audio industry in India. KukuFM, with its unique indigenous content and subscription driven growth model, is ideally placed to emerge as the winner in this space. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Bisu, Vinod and Vikas, and excited to be part of their journey ahead.”
With a high-quality team comprising of a unique mix of sports marketing veterans, professional sportspersons and M&A execution bankers, A&W advises clients across the various stages of lifecycle. This ranges from early-stage companies in the nascent digital media and gaming space to the more established professional sports leagues, teams and governing bodies in the sports ecosystem.
About A&W Capital
A&W Capital was founded in 2016 by Matthew Wheeler – a sports investment specialist with over three decades of experience in business management, M&A, investments and shareholder value creation. A&W Capital is a unique cross-border investment advisory firm focused on the sports, digital media and gaming sectors. Our primary aim is to act as the bridge between India and the international markets, identifying and servicing opportunities within our specialist fields. The India platform buildout is spearheaded by Paroksh Gupta who joined A&W Capital in early 2020. Prior to joining A&W Capital, Paroksh spent 7 years at the global investment firm KKR and 2 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
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